BOB (Band of Brothers)
by c.jayzer
Summary: Shoichi and Raiden were just two brothers who loved video games. So when Sword Art Online was announced, they had to play it. When the trap is sprung, there is nothing to do but fight in the death game. Follow two brothers and friends they find the meaning of friendship, loyalty, honor and love, all the while fighting to end this terrible nightmare.


Shoichi and Raiden were just two brothers who loved video games. So when Sword Art Online was announced, they had to play it. When the trap is sprung, there is nothing to do but fight in the death game. Follow two brothers and friends they find the meaning of friendship, loyalty, honor and love, all the while fighting to end this terrible nightmare.

**Today's the Day!**

**November 6, 2022 – 12:30 PM – Shin Household**

Today's the day!" yelled my brother as he bolted out of the recently parked car. He charged head first into our house and slammed the door behind him. Chuckling, I pulled myself out of the mini-van and looked over at my mom. She was rolling her eyes and mumbling. I caught the words 'insane' and 'mad man.' Still grinning, I went around the car and unlocked the trunk. For a second, I stood looking at my heavy book bag filled with all of my homework. _'Damn it,' _I thought, _'Why'd the teachers give so much homework on today of all days? Don't they know what day this is? Sheesh.'_ I sighed and hefted the weight over my back and trooped through the front door.

I slowly made my way upstairs and reached into my pockets to dig out my key. With a click, I unlocked the door and dumped the offending item off my back. A large yawn forced itself out of my mouth as I stretched. All sorts of muscles and bones cracked when I arched my back. A few seconds later, I crashed on my bed and closed my eyes. Barely ten seconds had passed before my fifteen year old brother, Raiden, crashed through my unlocked door.

"Oy! Wake up! Don't fall asleep on me! We've got things to do!" he yelled. I mumbled something incoherent and felt a pair of hands shake me. A dog-like growl escaped my lips and I opened my eyes glaring at the ridiculously happy younger sibling.

"Whaaaaaat?" I moaned, "What do you _want?_"

"Dude, today's the day! Don't tell me you forgot! Get up!" he groaned, grabbing my arms and pulled me into a sitting position.

"I didn't forget you idiot. I just wanted to rest a bit."

"You can rest later. Come on, the launch will start in," he looked at his watch, "twenty four minutes. Hurry up and change. You've got to get comfortable you know."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going." I stood up and took off my school tie and dress shirt. I walked over to my drawer and selected the top t-shirt. Next I pulled off my fancy dress shoes and my fancy dress pants and pulled on some comfy sweatpants. Man, I love sweat pants. They're the best.

As soon as I had finished changing, my brother had raced off downstairs yelling something about snacks. I rolled my eyes and followed him down. He was in the kitchen jumping up and down as he rummaged through the fridge. It was a very strange sight. Seriously. Imagine a grown teenager acting like a two year old. Then imagine that same teenager holding a carton of milk and a jar of cookies. _Then_ imagine that same teenager wearing sweatpants, panda slippers, and a Nike shirt. If you got all that down, then it would look very strange indeed. Still, I understood where he was coming from. Today was literally _the_ day. The day of all days. The day where video games make their mark on their world. That's right. Today's the day that Sword Art Online opens up its server to the ten thousand people who were lucky enough to get their hands on a copy. Today, the world of VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) makes its mark on the world.

_Today,_ I have a dream. A dream that one day on the red hills of Geor- oops, wrong speech. Anyways, you get my drift. Everyone who is anyone will remember today as a historical day. Today a videogame lets you enter another world, another dimension, and not mentally, but physically. Today a person can warp himself into a universe where every little thing is replicated. From the five senses to thoughts and emotions of each individual person, Sword Art Online's main processing unit, the NerveGear, allows you to fully immerse yourself into an entirely new world. _Today_, ladies, gentlemen, grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles, cats and dogs and fish and mice and frogs of each and every species, _today_, we view history. On November 22, 2022 at 1:00 PM, the Sword Art Online server goes online. Ten thousand copies were sold. Of those ten thousand copies, two lie within the Shin household.

That's right. I, Shoichi Shin, older brother of Raiden Shin and Kuzon Shin, have gotten my hands on a copy of the infamous Sword Art Online. No, I was not a beta tester. No, I do not know anything about the game, but who cares? Who flippin' cares? I don't! My brother was the beta tester, and not me. Still, that doesn't matter. Do you know why? Because I still got a copy!

Now, enough with the rant. My name is Shoichi Shin and I am seventeen years old. I'm part Japanese (from my mom), part Vietnamese (from my dad), and part American-ese (from the last eleven years I've spent in America). I know three languages, four if you count my French, and I'm still hopelessly single. Oh, so so _so_ hopelessly single. I'm 70.76 kilograms and 177.8 centimeters tall. For those Americans out there, that's 156 pounds and five feet ten inches. I have short spiky hair that's always in my usual buzz cut, and I have black eyes.

My fifteen year old brother, Raiden, on the other hand, has smooth brown hair and deep brown eyes. They are so brown that they border on the color of mud. Don't tell him that though. He doesn't really like it when you compare him to dirt. No one does really. Any who, he's about two inches shorter than me (five centimeters if you're not American) and just as heavy. My friends think we take steroids, but it's really just exercise. I mean seriously, by the time we were ten, we could do forty push-ups, ten straight pull-ups and run a mile without breaking sweat. That's what you get when you're dad's ex-military. He runs you to the ground.

Kuzon, our little thirteen year old baby, got it lucky. By the time he came around, my dad had lowered his maddening regime by half. Still, Kuzon's not a weakling. Heck, if you called him that, he'll probably just smile sweetly and knock your teeth in. Just kidding. He's a nice kid. He won't even hurt a fly. He's got a mix of my dad's black hair and my mom's brown hair. I still don't know what to call it. Beige? Tan? Heck, we call it brown just to be simplistic. Anyways, he's a five feet one inch and last I checked, he was a total chick magnet. The girls couldn't get enough of him. We used to say that he got all of my dad's charms and my mom's looks. That left me with the old man's mathematical brain and Raiden with my mom's social skills. Yes, how lame.

As I sat at the kitchen table munching on my mom's amazing white chocolate chip cookies, (which, by the way, are the best) Raiden had turned on the radio and tuned into the news. Say what you want, but besides videogames, my brother loved to keep up with the news. Right now, all the anchors were going off about SAO and Raiden was avidly listening. Hearing soft footsteps, I turned around and saw Kuzon walk into the room along with my mom. I noticed that he was in his uniform and realized he had just gotten home from school. As soon as he entered the kitchen and the noise reached his ears, he rolled his eyes.

"Listening to the livestream, Raiden?" He asked.

"Yep. I gotta keep up with the latest news."

"You know that you're a beta tester right? You pretty much know all about the game. So why listen to it now?" Kuzon was not a gamer. He didn't understand the point of it. No wonder he was teasing Raiden so relentlessly. They always fought over that subject, sports or videogames. You know Raiden's side. Now you know Kuzon's.

"Well I'm not playing it yet am I?" countered Raiden, "Might as well get some info out of it." He quickly glanced at his watch and gasped. Rushing over to the sink, he washed his cup and rushed back to clean my empty one. "Sho, hurry! We've got, like, two minutes!"

I glanced at the wall and grinned. It was 12:51. I would hardly call that 'two minutes.' Grinning I stood up and stretched. "Fine. Come on, let's get this over with."

Raiden rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Over with? Huh. Someone's not excited."

I laughed and slapped him on the back before heading upstairs. As I walked, my pulse quickened. This was it. It's almost time. In a few minutes, history will be made. I opened my door and grabbed the 'Do not disturb' sign on the shelf. I had created that specifically for today. My mom knew the plan. I would get two hours of game time, and then we would log out, eat and finish the homework. I glanced at my bag again. Inside lay the beasts known as Physics and Calculus. Lucky thing I didn't get any biology homework. If I did, I would have been screwed.

I walked over to the NerveGear on my desk and admired it. This was the device that would transport me to another world, to another dimension. This was the same thing as the Fountain of Youth, the gold at the end of the rainbow. I connected the device and went through all the checks. Calibration? Check. Full battery? Check. Stable internet connection? Check. I looked over at my clock and read 12:58 PM. I grinned and thought, _'It's time.'_

I put on the NerveGear and lay on my bed. As I laid there, I thought of the world. From my brother's description, it was supposed to be a huge floating castle with many different floors. Apparently, there's a boss at the end of each floor that you have to kill to proceed. The beta testers had only gotten to the eighth floor and there was supposed to be dozens more.

Oh I couldn't wait to get inside.

I heard the sound of the radio playing downstairs and a door opened. I guessed that it was my dad. I flicked my eyes back to the clock within the NerveGear and read 12:59 PM.

'_Less than one more minute baby.'_

Suddenly, the clock changed.

1:00 PM

I grinned.

"Link start!"


End file.
